Maryland HOA & condo associations in court: the numbers

Maryland on the map

367 of the 1,572 communities with court records (rings, coloured by their most common case type) have an address or ZIP in the record and are drawn here; the rest have no location in any record and are not on the map, but stay searchable. Click a pin for the community's report, or open the full-screen map.

HOA Spy indexes 2,634 Maryland homeowner and condominium associations. 1,572 of them appear in 15,879 court records — 15,541 from county and state trial courts, 171 from appellate courts and 167 from federal dockets. Maryland ranks 3rd of the 15 states with the most court records on HOA Spy. Every number on this page is computed from official court and county records; data as of 2026-10-02.

The facts

• Ten associations account for 20% of all Maryland court records on file. At the other end, 837 of the 1,572 communities with any record appear in exactly one case.
• Associations are usually the ones suing: they were the plaintiff in 14,564 records and the defendant in 754 — 95% of the cases with a known side were brought by the association, typically to collect assessments.
• The busiest year on file was 2013, with 697 records. The last full year, 2025, had 476 — up 52% on 2020 (313).
• Collections cases make up 66% of the records (10,490): assessment, debt and contract claims. Next come Other cases (4,713).
• 15,541 records come (98%) from county and state trial courts, 171 from appellate courts and 167 from federal dockets.
• 18 records are fair-housing, disability-accommodation or other civil-rights suits — the kind of case a buyer with a service animal or an accessibility request should know about.
• The 1,238 associations with a registered unit count hold 159,533 units between them.
• Montgomery County alone holds 12,907 records (81% of the state) across 1,103 communities.

What the cases are about

Each court record is labelled by its nature of suit the way the map colours it. Maryland's 15,879 records break down as:

• Collections10,490 · 66%
• Other4,713 · 30%
• Foreclosure357 · 2%
• Appellate171 · 1%
• Property81 · 1%
• Tax21 · 0%
• Civil Rights18 · 0%
• Insurance16 · 0%
• Eviction11 · 0%
• Labor1 · 0%

Collections: assessment, debt and contract claims · Other: dockets that carry no nature of suit or one outside these groups (county civil dockets often say only "civil") · Foreclosure: the association foreclosing its lien, or named in a lender's foreclosure · Appellate: decisions of the state's appellate courts · Property: property and condominium disputes · Tax: tax matters · Civil Rights: fair-housing, disability-accommodation and other civil-rights claims · Insurance: coverage disputes with an insurer · Eviction: eviction and unlawful-detainer actions · Labor: employment and labor claims

Who is suing whom

The side comes from the role the court recorded for the association where the docket gives one, otherwise from which side of the “v.” the association's name sits. Appeals, petitions and association-versus-association captions stay undetermined.

Filings by year

court records · 2026 is partial

The oldest records on file date from 1948. Years reflect the filing date on the docket (the decision date for appellate opinions); records with no date are left out. Coverage grows as courts are added, so part of any rise is HOA Spy reaching more dockets — see the sources below.

Where the cases are

The county is the community's own (from its registration or ZIP), not the court's. Courts with the most Maryland records: Rockville District Court (6,027); Montgomery County Circuit Court (4,089); Silver Spring District Court 02 (2,711); Calvert County District Court (366); Upper Marlboro District Court (347); Charles County District Court (309); Towson District Court (303); Glen Burnie District Court (199).

Associations with the most court records

A long record is not by itself a verdict on a community: a large association collecting assessments through the courts can have hundreds of small-claims entries. Open the profile to see what the cases are and who brought them.

How Maryland compares

The states with the most court records on HOA Spy. The share column is the part of each state's indexed communities that appear in at least one case; it depends on which courts are indexed there as much as on the communities themselves.

Where this data comes from

• Federal dockets and state appellate opinions: CourtListener (RECAP archive and bulk data, snapshot 2026-09-30)
• Association roster: Montgomery County DHCA — registered common ownership communities (CCOC) (1,256 records)
• IRS roster: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File (196 records)
• Not collected: SDAT business bulk — paid
• Not collected: mdlandrec.net land records — requires account registration

Most HOA litigation happens in state trial courts, which have no national index; HOA Spy reads the portals it can. A Maryland community outside the indexed courts can have cases this page does not count. Names are matched conservatively, so an ambiguous match is left out rather than guessed. Sources & methodology.

Questions people ask

How many HOA lawsuits are filed in Maryland each year?

In 2025, the last full year, 476 court records naming a Maryland community association were filed in the courts HOA Spy indexes; the five-year average is 368 a year. The busiest year on file is 2013 with 697.

Which Maryland associations have the most court cases?

By records on file: Greencastle Lakes Community Association (415); Greenfields At Brandermill Condominium, Inc. (363); DIAMOND FARMS CONDOS (345). Most of these are suits the associations brought themselves, typically to collect assessments.

Do Maryland HOAs sue homeowners more than they get sued?

In the records with a known side, the association was the plaintiff 14,564 times and the defendant 754 times. Suits brought by associations are typically assessment collection and lien enforcement; suits against them typically come from owners, insurers or lenders.

How do I check a specific Maryland HOA?

Search it by name on HOA Spy: the report lists every lien, case and complaint on file with a link to the official record, and says which sources were checked. Communities with records also have a profile page under the Maryland directory. Data as of 2026-10-02.